Time will tell whether his election to high office was whiter than white. Tales of voter intimidation are rife, technological failures at polling stations are emerging, and nobody has even looked yet in the direction of Moscow.

Will he deliver on his promised thuggery for the Deplorables? Are there any grown ups to curb his temper and excesses? Will this embolden Mme. Le Pen and other lunatic demagogues far and wide?

If Trump manages to be competent I can see him letting down his own voters and running into trouble with Republicans in Congress. The only mention of policy in Trump's speech was about spending on infrastructure which will mean higher deficit spending or tax rises. This will send the Tea Party round the bend and will probably turn to Democrats if he is serious. He will get a crash course in international relations and told Putin and Bejing will take him for a mug if he withdraws from Europe and Asia. But he will probably have a less interventionist view than Clinton. Not unlike Obama maybe. And what are these Christian conservatives and nativist bigots expecting from a louche NYC social liberal like Trump? Maybe some more federal money for borders guard patrols rather than a wall and he will forget all about illegal Mexicans in 12 months time.

Some scenarios

Trump the clown prince
Leaves the running of the country to the grown-ups and sticks to bread & circuses like Boris and Berlusconi.

Hands on president
Fancies a go but is learning on the job and might settle down as a pragmatist that enjoys closing the deal that leaves everyone happy.

Brexit President
Tries to implement his protectionist economic flim-flam and either abandons it or implodes taking his party with him.

President Corbyn
Looked good compared to his nomination rivals but has no aptitude for political leadership and it turns into a complete fiasco. Business people don't have a good record in politics for reasons I haven't entirely fathomed.

Last edited by youngian on Wed Nov 09, 2016 11:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Could he just be a front man and the real president the republicans want is Pence? They use Trump as the mouthy figurehead to get the redneck vote, then sideline him and let this bible basher loose with all his religious zealotry shit?

If there was any positive take-out from this morning's speech on this area, it is this. He is running in to Pork Barrel County on this one and therefore accountable so that can only be a good thing, paradoxically.

The only slightly tricky problem with this is, who is going to do the work? The Chinese?

User mini profile

Over on IMDB I posted the following, in a conversation about House of Cards:

Well, that's one of the funny things about the Thatcher years. Having grown up in them, there was a sense that if you had the initiative, if you had the guts, it was possible to massively improve your lot in life. This was the age of the opening up of the financial sector, where the popular image of the stockbroker went from genteel upper class type to sharp-witted working class kid with an eye for the main chance. As older industries (mining, heavy manufacture etc) declined (or were precipitated into collapse), plenty more businesses started up, particularly in ICT and the service sector. With the sell-off of social housing, home ownership among the working class boomed. The flip side to all this was that you had to have the start-up cash, you had to have the bright idea, and the safety net if you failed (or if circumstances caused you to fail) was massively reduced.

There was also a regional aspect to all this. Life in the investment-attracting, high employment south was pretty good. In other areas...not so good.

Then came the nineties and the Major years, and the 1990-92 recession. The sense there was that those who had made their money were pulling up the drawbridge behind them and leaving others to flounder. Whereas the 80s had been a time of conspicuous consumption, they had also been a time of conspicuous charity (think Live Aid for instance). The early 90s saw a harder attitude develop, that people shouldn't be a burden on society. OK, the warning signs of this had been there in the last few years of Thatcher's premiership (basically after her 1987 election win and the implosion of the eastern bloc she got a mix of a God complex and a sense of unease about Britain's role in a post-Cold War world), but they really became mainstream under John Major.

There are a few other things at play too. As I've said before, people are generally happy to pay for things they benefit from. The problem we've had since the 2008 banking crisis is that there has been huge amounts of taxation with no visible reward. Add to that things such as 'green taxes' and indeed anything smacking of eco-friendliness - it's a deferred benefit, with the reward coming years down the line. It's like lightbulbs - eco-friendly ones may save money and last longer, but they take a moment or two to warm up. Incandescent ones though - bang, instant light.

And then there's the fact that our expectations are getting more and more, the bar being shifted ever higher. If a previously shitty hospital gets massive investment and improves, we don't think "hey wow", instead we grumble that it should never have been in a poor state to begin with, and find something else to complain about. We don't say we're glad of globalisation or improved technology because we can talk to our friends in the US on a relatively cheap iPad because it was made in a Chinese factory - instead we complain about having to fork out a few hundred quid rather than being thankful we didn't pay thousands for it. Likewise, while we were once content to visit a record shop and pay a few quid for a single, now we expect the album to be downloaded in moments for free.

The crisis will come soon, because people think their pay day is due, the day they finally get the reward for all the years they 'suffered'. It won't come, and then there will be blood.

"We want it all, we want it now" and we are not prepared to wait or save up. Maybe too, the era you refer to caused increased consumerism as it saw the transfer of modest wealth, by inheritance, from parents who had had secure jobs and no debts in the 1945-early 80s era.

When I was a teenager/early adult, in the 70s, you lived at home, gave your mum a bit for housekeeping each month, if you wanted something you would save up for a week or two, not much then in the way of tech anyway, maybe a radio, record player etc, and a few quid here or there on fashions.

If you wanted a car you would pay about £150 or so for something like an old Mark 2 Cortina or Mini, or Vauxhall Viva, now the people of this age group want the latest iphones, designer shoes/clothes and a new shiny motor with all the extras.

The problem is, its all built on sand, easy credit, buy now, pay tomorrow, what happens after all the work is outsourced and you cant afford to pay your HP commitments/rent/mortgage?

It will, sooner or later, crash. Right wing populism and unrestricted free market economics are a bit like the long ball game in football. A quick fix for the short sighted, sooner or later teams who play this way get found out and go into terminal decline

The truth is, hitting the 2-degree target (much less 1.5 degrees) was always a long shot. It would require all the world’s countries to effectively turn on a dime and send their emissions plunging at never-before-seen rates.

It was implausible, but at least there was a story to tell. That story began with strong US leadership, which brought China to the table, which in turn cleared the way for Paris. The election of Hillary Clinton would have signaled to the world a determination to meet or exceed the targets the US promised in Paris, along with four years of efforts to create bilateral or multilateral partnerships that pushed progress faster.

With steady leadership, the US and China would exceed their short-term goals. Other countries would have their willpower fortified and steadily ratchet up their commitments. All this coordinated action would result in a wave of clean energy innovation, which would push prices down lower, which would accelerate the transition.

Rumours circulating about Palin as Interior Secretary of the Department of the Interior, in charge of natural energy resources and climate change policies. (Her policy would be "do nothing as there is no such thing as climate change".)

“I think a lot about the Department of Energy, because energy is my baby: oil and gas and minerals, those things that God has dumped on this part of the Earth for mankind’s use instead of us relying on unfriendly foreign nations.”

ROD LIDDLE Most of us saw Donald Trump’s victory coming – but the liberal elite have not learned anything since BrexitThey’re all gnashing their teeth at the outrage of it, wailing and weeping, says Sun columnist

WERE you surprised by Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election? Here’s my guess.

I’ll bet you were a hell of a lot less surprised than the opinion pollsters. Or the BBC. Or almost all our mainstream politicians. Or almost all the political commentators. You know — the people who really know their stuff.

They’re all gnashing their teeth at the outrage of it, wailing and weeping.

The rest of us saw this coming — but the liberal elite is still deluded. Still stuck in its smug complacency.

“How could the people be so wrong again,” they whine?

Here’s the thing. Trump’s triumph is just the latest — and most spectacular — in a series of peaceful and rather wonderful revolutions across the Western world.

A revolt against a ruling liberal political class which has caused untold havoc at home and mayhem and murder abroad. And the people have had enough of it.

Not just here and in the USA, but across Europe too.

Sick of the uncontrolled immigration which makes their lives a misery. Sick of the catastrophic wars waged in the Middle East which always — always — make things worse.

Sick of the arrogance of the politicians who tell ordinary people they’re wrong, and racist, or bigoted, or stupid, to oppose their deeply damaging policies.

From Budapest and Athens in the east, to San Francisco in the west, these liberals are on the retreat. From either right wing or left wing populists. Every time there’s an election, or a referendum, the liberal elite gets well and truly hammered.

They don’t expect to get hammered. They think they’re going to win — just as with Brexit or the 2015 General Election. Just as they did in America — until about midnight on Tuesday.

And then they lose, heavily. And start crying and attempt to have the vote retaken because all the people who voted against them are just plain dumb.

You’d think by now they’d have woken up. But they haven’t.

Even as I write this, there are the same old voices in TV and radio studios. Shocked and stunned by Trump’s victory. Just as they were shocked and stunned by the Brexit vote and the last election.

They’re the people you want to vote for you. Capisce? Duh. Howzabout you try to engage with them?

And don’t think for a minute it will stop here. France will be next — and it may well elect a president who thinks the country should leave the EU. And that will be the end of the EU.

Don’t bet against it. Soon there will be no more metro-liberals running governments anywhere in Europe. Good!

There’s a lot not to like about President Trump. The hair for a start. And also the fact he has difficulty constructing a coherent sentence.

But his victory was well deserved. And if he can win against the liberal elite — then ANYONE can.

NEVER mind frozen-faced Hillary. The real losers of the presidential election were, once again, the opinion pollsters.

They were all predicting a fairly easy win for Mrs Clinton – and got it staggeringly wrong.

I wonder if anyone will believe opinion pollsters ever again? They got the last General Election over here completely wrong. They loused up very badly again over the Brexit referendum.

I wrote here a few months back that it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Trump won.

I even had a bet that he’d win with a mate from BBC Newsnight (he hasn’t paid up yet. Oi, James – I want my quid!)

I guess the pollsters hadn’t been able to account for the Shy Trumpers.

These aren’t people who secretly let off in a lift. They’re the ones who don’t tell anybody they’re going to vote for Trump until they actually do because they’re scared of being ridiculed or bullied by the liberals.

It was the same with the Shy Tories during the election and the Shy Leavers during the EU referendum.

If the pollsters don’t sort this stuff out soon, they’ll be looking for new jobs . .

And of course...LUVVIES!

Time for a mass exod-US

THE American luvvies are in a right old strop, bless them.

The stars of Hollywood and the music industry turned out to support Clinton.

The likes of druggie Robert Downey Jnr, Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo made emotive videos demanding nobody should vote for the horrible, nasty, Donald Trump.

Nobody took any notice, did they, Robert. No notice at all.

Meanwhile, more than 20 luvvies said they would actually leave the country if Trump won.

The ghastly Amy Schumer, for example, said she’d move to Spain.

While Neve Campbell, Chloe Sevigny and Lena Dunham said they’d head for Canada.